Crimes Continues Rise
by Frank Burlison, Long Beach Press-Telegram
October 27, 2005 As painful, literally and figuratively, as it was to spend last season on the sidelines for the Long Beach State women's volleyball team, there was some solace to be found for Erika Chidester.
"I told (49ers coach) Brian (Gimmillaro) that, in a way, I was glad to be redshirting (while recovering from a sore right shoulder), because it meant I was going to get to spend a season playing with her," the fifth-year senior said after practice Wednesday night.
"Her" is 6-foot-3 sophomore Alexis Crimes, who plays alongside Chidester in Long Beach's front row and will be a critical part of the 49ers attack when the team plays a couple of significant Big West Conference matches in the Walter Pyramid this weekend, beginning tonight at 7:30 against the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mustangs.
The 49ers, with a six-match winning streak, are 16-4 overall and 5-1 in the Big West, a game behind the first-place UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, who play at UC Irvine tonight before visiting Long Beach on Saturday night.
Crimes, who didn't begin playing the sport on a competitive basis until her junior year in high school, was the American Volleyball Coaches Association West Region Freshman of the Year, as well as a third-team All-America.
Not bad for a player who admittedly wasn't even yet well versed in all of her sport's rules and terminology, much less its nuances.
Crimes is an outstanding student (usually the norm in Gimmillaro's program) and is considering declaring a biology or criminal justice major in the spring.
There's logic to the alternatives.
She thinks she might like to go to medical school some day "and I love those CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) shows!" she exclaimed.
And she's proven as quick a study on the court as she is in the classroom.
"She's always asking questions she really wants to learn," Chidester said of the Etiwanda High graduate, who has spent the last couple of summers playing in Canada, Poland and Turkey as a member of the U.S. Junior National team.
Chidester, who could probably be a dominating presence on the major college basketball level if she were so inclined (she isn't), seems to play chest level to the net as frequently as many of her counterparts are elbow level to the twine.
In volleyball (as in basketball) there are "big" jumpers (who get way off the floor) and "quick" jumpers (who accelerate to that height while others are still flexing their knees).
Crimes is both.
"I think Alexis is the same high-caliber athlete as some of the past Long Beach greats, like Danielle Scott and Tayyiba Hanneef (2004 Olympians)," UC Santa Barbara coach Kathy
Gregory said this week.
"Because she's so quick and plays at such a high level, she's someone we have to play differently (against) than we do a lot of other players."
Crimes ranks first in the Big West in blocks (1.57 per game), second in hitting percentage (.375) and seventh in kills (3.66 per game), relatively comparable statistics to her freshman performance.
But numbers don't truly reflect her improvement, everyone seems to agree.
"I was looking at her today (Monday, during practice)," Gimmillaro said, "and I thought, 'My goodness, she's just a sophomore." Technically she's doing things better now, like blocking.
"But she's like all the best players we've had here in that, even as they develop (as individuals), they're more concerned about assuming responsibility for the team's success and helping their teammates."
Chidester agrees.
"She has really matured a lot as a player," the 2003 All-Big West Conference selection said of Crimes.
"She has more of a court presence now. Last year she would do her thing, spike the ball and not say much. She has much better awareness of her surroundings (on the court) now. Brian has done a great job of bringing that out of her and building upon her foundation."
Crimes knows on-the-court maturation and expanding technical expertise go hand in hand in the evolution of a volleyball player.
"Before, I'd just hit and hit and not think anything about it," she said. "But now I'm learning something new every day about hitting, blocking and passing."
The road is wide open and she's rarin' to put the right foot down on the accelerator hard.
"I know I'm improving and playing better (than she did as a freshman)," she insisted. "But I know I'm capable of so much more."
Chidester agrees.
"There's no doubt in my mind," she said, "that we're going to be watching her on TV some day."
Would that be while playing for the U.S. Olympic team?
"Oh, heck yeah," Chidester said. "She's going to be playing a long time."
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